


let's pretend a little bit longer

by Remustrash



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bisexual Sirius Black, Black Family Drama (Harry Potter), Gay Remus Lupin, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Polyjuice Potion, Pureblood Politics (Harry Potter), Pureblood Society (Harry Potter), Work In Progress, remus lupin being a cheeky little shit, sirius black being a total sub
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:48:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,263
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24380806
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Remustrash/pseuds/Remustrash
Summary: In a world where the Black Family rises to power and imposes a segregation policy between those of pure and impure blood, Sirius -as the son of the Minister of Magic- visits muggleborn spaces behind the protection of a polyjuice potion. One night, he meets a mysterious boy named Remus, who will take him to places, both physical and emotional, Sirius has never visited before.But Remus has a secret, and were he to discover Sirius' real identity, it could ruin forever the bond that's growing between them... or worse.
Relationships: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Comments: 9
Kudos: 24





	let's pretend a little bit longer

**Author's Note:**

> So here I am, starting another work when I haven't finished my previous one. I blame the quarantine.  
> Anyways, this is my second AU!  
> I hope you enjoy:)

Sirius wasn't usually allowed to wander off on his own, but today was his birthday, so he guessed he could allow himself a little rebellious act. With a content sigh, he pushed open the door to the Leaky Cauldron. It was summer on a Friday night and the place was as loud and full as ever. He lowered his head, though the polyjuice potion would avoid anyone recognizing him. It’s not that he minded being seen in such a place, more that he would like to avoid any dirty stares or, most likely, a punch in the face. It was not easy being the son of the Minister of Magic. Not when said Minister was hated by almost half the population, at least. 

His father had come to power four years ago by force and imposed a strict segregation policy on the magic world which separated muggle-borns from pure bloods in all public spaces, and prohibited relations between the two groups. At the moment, Sirius, who was merely fifteen years-old, could understand where his father was coming from. Magical families had worked hard throughout the centuries to maintain the secret existence of magic from the muggles, and then some wizards and witches had  _ illegally _ revealed this magic to muggles and, even worse,  _ procreated _ with them. Sirius could not understand what was so difficult about maintaining the purity of your own blood. Now, however, he is not so sure about his father’s ideology. He’s got to know a few muggle-born people, mostly girls he’d chatted up at The Leaky Cauldron under the disguise of the potion and too drunk to care who their parents were, and he reckons they’re not so different from purebloods. After all, they’re not the ones to blame for their ancestors’ mistakes, right? As long as they themselves don’t continue to relate with muggles. 

He sat in one of the stools on the bar and ordered a drink, one of those horrible fruity things he couldn’t avoid loving the taste of. The barwoman smiled at him while preparing his drink and he smiled back. Tonight he was disguised as their gardener, Jack, a red-head, pure-blood lad of around his age, broad shoulders, kind of short and with a bit of stubble and light blue eyes. Jack barely left the mansion, since he lived there, so Sirius was sure no one would recognize him in the streets. Also, he always had a stash of the potion prepared, but used different people each time. He thanked Merlin that he was so good at potions, because the effects usually lasted for more than five hours.

“Here you have, sir” said the girl, sliding the glass towards him on the bar. 

“Thanks, love” 

He took a sip of his drink, relishing in the combination of strawberry and vodka. He was just about to take another when he heard a voice next to him: 

“I think this is the first time I see someone having an orgasmic experience with a drink”

Sirius turned around in confusion. The voice came from a guy sitting on the stool next to his. He was tall and lean, light auburn hair and deep brown eyes. He showed a cheeky smirk to Sirius that perfectly accompanied the playful tone of his voice.

"Bet I can make you experience the same without a drink," Sirius let out, surprising himself. It was a typical line he'd used with a girl, but… Well, this was no girl. He blushed at the realization, but felt a strange sort of excitement at seeing the stranger's smile grow bigger.

"I'm Remus," said the boy, offering his hand. Sirius shook it.

"Edward" he lied. Sirius was, after all, too much of a unique name for him to be using at this moment. He felt bad, though, lying to this Remus guy (unique name, too). But it's not like he had any plans of seeing him again past tonight.

Which, okay, what exactly were Sirius' intentions for tonight? The ideas swirling in his mind left him a bit speechless.

"You seem like you're having a crisis," Remus pointed out, snapping Sirius back to reality.

"Oh… umh, I…"

"Don't worry, I get it" said Remus, again with that smirk that was starting to do weird things to Sirius' stomach. "First time here?"

"Uh, no, actually. I come here often. What about you? I haven't seen you around here"

"Yeah, first time here"

"That's odd"

"Why?" Remus frowned.

"I'd have thought you were quite experienced," said Sirius, nervously putting a strand of hair behind his ear. 

The other boy smiled. "First time here, not first time doing this"

Sirius cleared his throat, heat pooling on the back of his neck. "What do you mean, this?" 

"Oh, you know." The bar lady approached them. Apparently, Remus had ordered a drink at some point, and she handed the glass of honey-coloured liquid to him with a smile. The boy returned the smile, thanked her, and turned back to Sirius, who was again sipping at his blueberry drink. "You know, trying to get in a man's pants and all"

Sirius choked on his drink. The stranger laughed and reached out to pat him lightly on the back. 

"Ok, don't die on me, you can just say no!"

Sirius, watery eyes and burning cheeks, looked at the guy in front of him. And okay, Sirius had to admit it, he was an attractive man. Slim waist, big hands, delicate features, a sweet glint in his eyes. He looked confident too which was always attractive. But… he was  _ a guy _ . It was weird, right? Sirius had never…

"Well, okay, I realize now," started the guy with an apologetic smile, "I'm making you uncomfortable, right? So… yeah, I'm gonna…"

"Do you wanna dance?" Sirius cut him off. 

"What?"

"Dance," he repeated, feeling a bit out of himself. "I know a place, couple of blocks down the street"

The stranger hesitated. "Are you sure you…? I don't want to…"

"Come on," Sirius exclaimed. Suddenly scared Remus would go and he'd never see him again, he got down from the stool and offered his hand. Remus still looked unsure, so Sirius reached for his hand and took it firmly in his, already tugging the boy towards the door. "Let's go!"

They emerged into the starry night, their hands still clasped together. Sirius had only drank half of his drink, but he could feel the sweet, warm effect of the vodka on his veins. He felt reckless somehow, freer than what he’d felt in most of his nights in disguise. He pulled Remus down the street, and the hot, humid air of the summer made him afraid that he would stink of sweat by the time they arrived at the place. 

When they finally made the last turn, Remus stopped on his tracks, almost making Sirius trip over his feet. 

“What is it?” he asked, frowning at the boy, who looked scared under the soft yellow of the street light.

“I can’t go there,” he said, shaking his head. 

“Why not?” As soon as he said it, he realized how stupid he’d been. He threw a look at the pub’s sign, the shining green letters a huge contrast with the black sky. 

_ The Enchanted Floor  _ was a pureblood pub. Shit, Sirius wanted to slap himself. What was he thinking? Here he was, under disguise, just out from a muggle-born pub and trying to drag this surely muggle-born man into the snake’s nest. 

“Oh” he sighed, letting go of the stranger’s hand. He pulled at his red hair anxiously. “I’m sorry I… I can be a bit reckless sometimes,” he tried to laugh it off. 

“One thing is being reckless,” Remus said. “A very different one is to walk into a place full of people who want you dead”

Sirius wanted to point out they had just got out of a place full of people that wanted  _ him _ dead, but knew better than to do so. 

“You’re right, I’m sorry,” he apologized. Then tried a shy smile. “Come on, you show me a place, I bet you’re much better at this than I am”

And there it was again, that vague, ambiguous “this.” This thing, the thing between them, big and obvious and scary as a boggart. At least from Sirius’ point of view. He got what he wanted though, which was to make the other boy smile. 

Remus took his hand again and, without another word, led Sirius back towards the direction of the Leaky Cauldron. He was about to ask why they were going back when Remus made them turn down a dark alley. Sirius hesitated for a second, aware that this was a stranger that most likely would hate him if he found out who he was. But Remus smiled at him and tugged at his hand, encouraging him to go forward. Sirius did. 

They walked down the alley, then down a second one, and a third one, until Remus stopped them. They stood looking at what appeared to be a very old back door. Remus smiled at his confused expression and fished in his pocket, getting out his wand. 

“You know a lot of magic?” Sirius enquired, curious. Not many muggle-borns knew their magic well, considering they weren’t allowed in the best schools, like Hogwarts. Of course, Sirius didn’t attend Hogwarts either but that was because, as the son of the Minister, he was homeschooled by the best wizards and witches his parents could find. 

“I do, actually,” Remus said, seemingly unbothered by the question. “My da is a wizard, so he taught me everything he knows”

“Oh, so you’re a…” Sirius shut up, unsure of whether that word was offensive. After all, it was in his family. 

“A half-blood, yeah”

“Right”

“What about you?”

Sirius thought for a second before answering. He always used the same backstory when he was in disguise, but somehow it felt painful to lie so much to Remus. “I’m a half-blood too. My father was a wizard, but he died long ago, so it’s just me and my mother now”

That was as close to the truth as he could get. Closer to what he wanted to be the truth sometimes, too. 

Afraid Remus would keep on asking questions he couldn’t answer, he elbowed him and nodded to the door. “Where are we, then?”

Remus smiled mysteriously. “You’ll see.” He pointed at the door with his wand and whispered a simple Alohomora spell. 

They entered into a dark space. Sirius could make out the shape of what appeared to be seats near them, and he could guess by the cool air on his arms that this was probably quite a big room. Remus whispered a “Wait here” and disappeared from his side, leaving Sirius alone in the dark, feeling a strange tingle in the palm of his hand now that it wasn’t holding Remus’s.

He counted to twenty (a technique he’d used when he was a little boy scared of the darkness in his room) and then, one by one, the lights started to turn on. Sirius froze, speechless, observing what was in front of him with wide eyes. 

It was quite a big room, probably three times the size of Sirius’ dining room (and it was a big dining room). There were at least twenty rows of brown, dusty seats, one close to the other. The tall walls were covered in a kind of dark blue cloth that made the space look even bigger, and, in front of the room, there was a huge stage with red curtains on the back wall. 

“Woah,” Sirius murmured, impressed. 

“Nice, right?” yelled Remus from the stage. He jumped down from the stage and approached Sirius with a shining smile on his face. 

“Yes,” confirmed Sirius, still looking around in awe. “How did you…? What’s…?”

Remus chuckled. “It’s really, really interesting actually.” He twisted his mouth. “Well, the story of the place is. Not so much how I found it.” Sirius looked at him, expectantly, and Remus continued: “Well, it’s a muggle theatre, obviously...”

Sirius didn’t know what a theatre was, but he didn’t dare ask since it looked like a common thing for Remus. 

“...and I reckon it comes from like the 40s? Judging by the state of the place and some posters I found lying around. Which is interesting is that, well, it’s a  _ muggle theatre _ in the middle of a magical area, which was probably built and… used, in a time when not even half-bloods were allowed here. How did they manage that? Who built it?”

Sirius was completely and utterly mesmerised by the excitement radiating from the other boy. 

“And what… I mean, what did people do here?” he asked, hoping it wasn’t a weird question, but either Remus didn’t think so or he was too excited to notice.

“Well, I don’t know! I guess there were plays? Like, muggle plays? With actors and stuff. But I wonder…” His eyes wandered off somewhere over Sirius’ head. Sirius waited for a second, then cleared his throat, bringing Remus back to the present. The boy smiled shyly. “I found a poster once, of what I think was a play. A muggle play. I did some research and I think it was for, you know, people… people like  _ us _ ”

Sirius frowned. “You mean muggle-borns?”

Remus laughed awkwardly. “No, no. I mean,” he signaled from Sirius to him. “You know, like us”

“Oh,” Sirius exclaimed, finally understanding what Remus meant. He panicked. “I’m not… I mean I…”

“Oh” Remus said, the disappointment clear in his eyes. “I’m…”

“Don’t,” Sirius stopped him. “I mean, I... “ He bit his lip anxiously. “I mean I thought.. I thought I wasn’t, but, I don’t know”

Remus sighed. “Okay”

“Sorry”

Remus chuckled, then put his hand gently on Sirius’ elbow. “Come on, let’s explore this place”

And off they went, walking between the rows of dirty seats, looking under them for any missing treasures. Sirius was aware of the fact that Remus probably had explored this place a dozen times before, maybe even with other people, the thought of which made his stomach twist in an uncomfortable way. But everything else about the moment was completely comfortable: the way Remus kept turning back to smile at him, his chest bumping into Sirius’ back every time Sirus stopped too suddenly between the rows, their giggles and whispers and murmured predictions about who might have sat in these seats years ago, what their names and stories were, what they liked, who they loved. At one point, buried between the borders of one of the seats, Sirius found a silver ring. He turned to Remus excitedly:

“Look at this!” he exclaimed.

Remus stepped closer to observe the small object between Sirius’ fingers. They were so close that Sirius could feel the heat emanating from the other boy’s body, and could smell him even. He smelled nice, Sirius thought, strangely like chocolate, and that odd but somehow nice smell you get when you open a very old book.

“It’s amazing,” Remus said, still focused on the ring. He brought his index to the ring, sliding the tip of his finger along the silver. “I wonder if someone lost it or… just left it here on purpose.” He looked up at Sirius. “It’s a nice souvenir, right? To remember this night”

Sirius fidgeted, blushing at his next words. “I was actually… I want you to have it”

Remus smirked at him. “Really?”

“Oh, shut up and take it” 

The smirk grew bigger. “Not the context in which I expected to hear you say that, but, all right”

Sirius whimpered. He actually  _ whimpered _ at Remus’s words. Thankfully, the boy ignored him, or was too nice to laugh at him. Instead, he took the ring and tried to slide it down his index finger. It didn’t fit. He tried another finger. It didn’t fit either.

“Oh,” Remus said, disappointed after he tried repeatedly with no success. “It doesn’t fit”

“It’s okay, you can keep it anyway” 

Remus smiled at him and put the ring on the front pocket of his trousers. Then he sat down on the seat behind him and gestured to Sirius to sit down next to him. 

“So,” Sirius began, an idea question floating around in his mind. “You said earlier the story of this place was interesting, but not, um, not how you came about it. Why’s that?”

Remus seemed to consider his words for a moment. He looked down, hands twisting on his lap. “I guess I can…” he started, then took a deep breath. “All right, um. So I had this… I met this boy when I was a kid. His name was Thomas. We were best friends, you know, the whole deal, our parents were friends, we played together every day, slept in each other’s beds, walked together to school. Then we grew up and well, I guess the relationship grew with us into something else”

“You were in love,” guessed Sirius.

“Yeah”

“And he loved you back?”

Remus nodded. A tear rolled down his cheek. Sirius didn’t want to push him, but he wanted to tell him it was okay, so he let his hand pose on top of Remus’s shaking ones. The boy closed his eyes for a moment, then continued: “We were happy, we really were. We fought a lot because we had to hide. He was muggle-born, but you know how it is, hatred for what's different does not come or go with magic...”

Sirius guessed it didn’t. He hadn’t thought about that, about some of the awful things that transcended the ability to do magic. Things that were so inherently human and yet, not human at all. 

“.. but everything was fine. We found this place one day, looking for some privacy,” he chuckled, blushing, “and we were so fascinated with it. It was  _ ours _ . It was our little mystery, a secret we both wanted to keep”

He stopped, remaining silent for a moment.

“What happened then?” Sirius encouraged him softly.

Remus’s face changed. Sirius could see the anger transform his features, darken his eyes. It scared him.

“Then Black happened”

Sirius’ heart froze in its place at hearing his last name pronounced with such hatred. He swallowed, waiting for Remus to continue, too afraid to ask. 

“Four years ago, as you know, everything changed. It was more dangerous than ever, for Thomas and I. We didn’t only have to hide for who we loved but now we also had to hide for the blood in our veins. Our parents had to hide. Our friends. We’re still hiding, in a way. Allowed some things but kept separate, like....” He made a gesture of disgust. Then he seemed sad again. “Thomas, he couldn’t hide. He didn’t want to. He wanted to fight. So he joined the rebellion”

Sirius remembered that. A group of muggle-borns gathered and planned an attack on his father and his officials months after he came into power. They entered the Ministry of Magic and started throwing curses around. People died. On both sides. It was horrible.

Sirius could imagine now what happened to Thomas. Remus just confirmed it.

“They killed him,” he murmured, swiping away the tears on his cheek. “Of course, he shouldn’t have… but they killed him. He was fighting for his right to exist, Ed. He was fighting for all of us. And they killed him"

Remus looked directly into Sirius' eyes, who shivered under the intensity of his state.

"And I will never forgive them for it"

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment! They make me want to write faster lol


End file.
